Connected Car Expo is coming to Los Angeles Auto Show

A day before the start of the LA Auto Show will be the Connected Car Expo, which will show us the latest in singing, dancing, electronic gadgetry and advances in infotainment. In addition to the two press days, November 19th promises to feature some big companies making some equally big announcements.

Audi will unveil its A3 and S3 models with the first 4G LTE system built into a car, complementing its already Wifi-enabled offerings. In the A3 and S3, Audi Connect will offer picture navigation, read-aloud Facebook and Twitter alerts, personalized RSS news feeds and a new Audi Connect mobile app that will surely entice millennials into further favoring the four rings, one of the most aggressively tech-forward companies in the automotive landscape.

Speakers at the Connected Car Expo will include people from IHS Automotive, Intel, Gracenote, Pandora, MIT, and Ron Medford of Google -- who, after coming from NHTSA, is in charge of the company's self-driving cars. (A full list of speakers can be seen here.) GM chief infotainment officer Phil Abrams and current NHTSA administrator David Strickland will also participate in a panel discussion between luminaries that come more from the technological side of things than the automotive side. (CNET's editor at large Brian Cooley will host the entire show, and Doug Newcomb will be in charge.)

Ford and Sprint will also make announcements there, though we don't know about what. Ford's announcement may be something bigger than a SYNC update. And last year Sprint showed off Velocity, its wireless connectivity platform that brings the ability to diagnose a car remotely and track its location, as well as the usual array of Internet radio, mobile Wifi, weather, stock reports, sports scores, and Pandora. It's all about the Pandora, if automakers are to be believed.

That seems to be an overall theme with the way in-car connectivity is going: the car/phone relationship hasn't been this strong since the Motorola Bag Phone. Expect to see where the future goes on November 19th through the 21st. Tickets range from (brace yourself, Bridgette!) $525 for a one-day pass that does not even include parking, all the way up to the King Farouk Premium Plus Pass - $775 that includes:

3-day CCE conference and expo pass

All LA Auto Show Press Days activities (the "real" journalists will be happy to have you get in the way at press conferences)

VIP guided tour of the Auto Show floor

Exclusive behind-the-wheel demos of the latest in-car technology

Post conference package that includes all presentations given during the CCE

So take out a bank loan and sign up now!

By Blake Z. Rong